Here it was, the second stage of my plight for freedom, disappearing from my original captors. I had only broken free of their grip temporarily, as long as I remained in their sights they would be able to reach out and grab me again. To truly be free I would need to escape not only their sight, but the very limits of their reach, this is where the problem lies; I’m on a spaceship.

The entire ship is theirs, no matter where I go on this ship I will remain in their reach. The best I can do is stay out of sight, but I’m not stupid, not anymore, I know that I will be spotted eventually as long as I stay on the ship. Every time I’m spotted I’ll have to escape again, but how will I escape when the time comes?

The first solution is not to be found; Remain unnoticed as much as possible.

The second solution is to run away; Run away when possible.

The third solution is to eliminate witnesses; Kill threats when possible.

This will be my mission for the time being, “Stay out of sight, stay out of reach, and ensure that none will remember who I am”

…

What am I? An assassin?!

Anyways, putting aside the fact that I don’t have any hidden blades, I’m not an assassin – I’m a ghost.

I have a knife; it will be good enough for now.

Maybe later I’ll consider making my own hidden weapons, maybe I could even use my evolutionary abilities to develop something like that guy from the Old Marvel universe? I’m surprised, scanning through my archives it would seem Marvel still exists – rather impressive over 8000 years later. Now it’s got several subsections, such as “Old Marvel” which focuses on remaking their old works to today’s standards, ‘Nothing beats the classics’ they say – and looking at my archives again I can agree, as time progressed humanity’s ability to come up with good stories has only dwindled.

*Shziiin*

The door suddenly opened and I dove behind the crates before I was spotted.

My heart was beating wildly.

I really need to stop standing around, it’s dangerous to get distracted in this situation.

*tap, tap, tap*

I heard footsteps, they were slowly getting closer to me. I simply stopped breathing

Shit, this is not the time to be thinking about that!

“Is something wrong over there?”

The footsteps stopped.

“… No, I just thought I saw something move.”

My heart skipped a beat, I was so close to being found I couldn’t breathe.

“Maybe it was a rat?”

Huh? A rat? On a spaceship?

“It could be, I only caught a glimpse of it.”

You seriously think it was a rat? Out here in space?

“We’ll have to inform management… I can hardly believe they made it all the way to the Tech sector.”

Hold on, so the presence of rats has actually been confirmed and in large numbers?!

“Well let’s get the boxes and get going.”

Don’t ignore my inner monologue!

“Agreed, Mrs Mabel will have our heads if we don’t get back quickly enough.”

…

I feel really stupid about that last line…

After a few minutes the two men dressed in orange took some boxes from the other side of the room and left. It’s about time I left too. I stood up, grimacing at the searing sensation in my ankle, and took a careful look around the room. I need to keep on the move to not be found, and I can’t simply walk around the hallways. I’ll need to find another- THERE!

It’s perfect, the ventilation ducts. I saw one on the other side of the room, is it the only one? I kept scanning the room, I found four entrances to the ducts in total; one on the wall near the floor, one on the roof, and two on the walls near the roof. I decided to use the one near the floor, it was in the corner half way across the room, I limped over to the vent and crouched to get a better look at the vent. It had eight bolts keeping the grate in place.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

It’ll be obvious I came through here.

Using one of the other vents would be more troublesome but probably be worth it. I squinted my eyes trying to get a better look at one of the high-wall vents but couldn’t see clearly enough but they looked the same, I looked up to the one on the ceiling, it had a different design and may have been more ideal, but since I had no idea how to get up there I started by investigating the others on the wall.

I limped closer to get a better look to the vent on the opposite side of the room. The moment I got closer, no luck. It was also bolted shut, and I didn’t have the time to take off the bolts.

The last option is up.

I started stacking the boxes to get slightly closer. After five or six boxes had been stacked I clumsily clambered to the top and looked up at the vent.

Haaa… that’s a relief.

No bolts, the only issue left is the huge pile of boxes that would be left behind. Oddly conspicuous, no? I don’t have a choice. I made the stack thrice as high by surrounding it with other stacks tor steps, it was high enough to reach the vent and I had managed to move the grate out of the way but lacked the strength to pull myself up. I went back down to the floor and found a chair, accompanied by another chair and a table, as I reached out for the chair I heard a door opening and leapt behind the nearest crate.

Please don’t find me, please don’t find me…

I prayed as people stormed into the room, and the noise rapidly died away until there was silence.

The silence seemed to carry on forever.

Eventually someone came to their senses.

“IT’S IN THE VENTS!” a man in black protective gear screamed, presumably into a receiver.

There was some clamour among the rest of the men, I didn’t know how many there were and I didn’t want to risk exposing myself to find out. Eventually silence returned, but the men hadn’t left yet, after the moment of silence I heard everyone say “Sir, yes Sir!” in unison, shortly afterwards heavy and synchronised footsteps resounded through the room as the squad marched out.

I held my breath until I heard the door close behind them.

Haaa… That was way too close.

They’ll be searching the vents now; it would be a bad idea to be crawling around up there for a while.

This is really bad isn’t it?

I can’t vanish into the ventilation ducts since they’ll be scanning them, all I can do is run around in the hallways hoping nobody sees me. Looking around the room there were three doors and no windows, windows would have been preferable but we’re on a spaceship – even if it is big enough to be considered a station, the ‘space’ prefix remains. There should be windows on certain buildings in the residential wards though.

Thought for later, I’ve hindered my own plans twice already for spending too much time thinking, I really must learn when to think and when to act. For now, I’ll just head towards the door opposite the one the men used. While the door on the other side of the room was a large double door with transparent windows, ‘Attaglass’ I believe, this door was unfortunately a plain single access door without windows maid out of light grey Synth – artificial material with the strength of metal but has a neutral plastic feel that is neither hot nor cold.

Synth is weak as a construction metal but excels at damping various things which doesn’t make things any more comfortable, just far less uncomfortable. Some of the thing it absorbs are impact, light, and most importantly: it almost absorbs all sounds. That’s a little bit of good thing because people won’t be able to tell I’m on this side of the door, conversely it’s a really bad thing too since I have no idea what’s on the other side myself. There’s no point in waiting for anything, whether I open it now or later won’t change the chances of someone passing by at that exact moment.

I pressed the button next to the door and it started to slide open, I held my breath for the moment of truth.

Phew, nobody in sight.

I leant out and peeked down the passage on either side, there was still nobody in sight.

After picking a side at random I walked briskly down the hallway, making sure to keep my footing as light as possible. I wasn’t doing a very good job of it though, I could still hear my own footsteps. Fortunately, the walls were made of Synth so what sounds I did make wouldn’t make it very far. I started considering where I should go, as long as the vents are being watched I can’t make it out of the immediate area, I’d definitely be caught at the security checkpoints.

I slowed down and heightened my caution as I neared a T-Junction, stopping momentarily to make sure it was clear. There two people wearing orange suits and bright green vests heading away from me near the end of the left passage so I turned right and continued. I knew they were workers from just a glance thanks to their uniforms, I didn’t need a second look.

… That’s true I didn’t take a second look; I couldn’t be bothered to after acknowledging their roles. Maybe if I was wearing a uniform it may be safer to walk around the hallways, hiding in plain sight is a legitimate strategy.

I’ll take a uniform when I find one, for now I focus on simply moving and not being noticed.

As I neared another junction I heard footsteps, they were getting louder. Trying not to panic I scanned the area for somewhere to hide. Time was running out but I was getting nowhere. My heart was beating faster and faster. I was expecting the end. I was so close.

Suddenly, as if I had reached a moment of enlightenment, the raging sea of despair calmed down, my heartbeat dropped back down too normal in a moment. I had found my way. I had noticed a subtly raised square on the wall, it looked similar to the vents from earlier but also slightly different.

I picked up my lowered pace and rushed the protrusion on the wall and investigated it with hast. I found a smaller square framed within the extents of the protrusion, I started fiddling with the small digital panel just above the smaller square. After a moment of fiddling there was beep smaller square opened away from the wall, swinging on the lower edge. I quickly crawled into the hole.

After my entire body was inside the narrow tunnel I turned myself around – hooray for being small! – and reached out towards an embedded handle on the lowered square. I grabbed the handle and pulled as hard as my little arms would let me. The square started to rise and I fell back, my hands slipped as the handle turned. I quickly tried to scrambled to grab it again, fearing that it would fall back down, but it continued to rise by itself and closed completely.

I was safe again, at least for now. I looked back down the tunnel, there were lots of cables and panels on the walls and roof, they’ll probably know I’m here if I touch something so I should be mindful of that. It extended far back and I couldn’t make out the region right at the back of the tunnel, it was impossible to judge through the muddy mess of various colourful LEDs scattered down the walls of the tunnel. I have successfully disappeared, but I should keep moving regardless.

A new life awaits me, a life free of confinement.